UnknownOffender Linked by DNA in Two Separate Cases
On a Saturday night in October 2009,college student Morgan Harrington left a Metallica concert at the University ofVirginia in Charlottesville and disappeared. It would be several months beforeher body was discovered in a field about 10 miles away.Weneed your help to find Harrington’s killer. Theindividual we are seeking has also been linked by DNA to a sexual assault inFairfax City, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Today, the Virginia StatePolice, Fairfax City Police, and the FBI released two enhanced sketches of thesuspect and are reminding the public there is a reward of up to $150,000 forinformation leading to an arrest and conviction in the Harrington case.
The multimedia campaign being launchedtoday to draw attention to the investigation will include information on socialmedia sites such as Twitter and Facebook, a public service announcement byMetallica, and electronic billboards in Virginia and along the East Coast.
“Bringing renewed attention to the casewill get people thinking about it again,” said Virginia State Police SpecialAgent Dino Cappuzzo. “Our hope is that someone will come forward and provide acrucial piece of information that will help us solve the murder.”
Harrington was a 20-year-old student atVirginia Tech when she went to the concert that Saturday, October 17, at theJohn Paul Jones Arena on the University of Virginia campus. At about 8:30 p.m.,she left the building and was unable to get back inside. She was last seenhitchhiking nearby.
Her remains were discovered thefollowing January in a remote field on a farm in Albemarle County, Virginia. Acamera she had that night and a distinctive Swarovski crystal necklace she waswearing have not been recovered.
FBI agents in our CharlottesvilleResident Agency have been assisting state investigators, and profilers from ourBehavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) have also provided consultation.
“A lot of BAU’s work focused on thelocation of the body and what that told us about the offender,” Cappuzzo said.“We believe he was intimately familiar with the farm and the surrounding areawhere the body was recovered. He may have been comfortable there and felt hewas not at risk of getting caught.”
DNA recovered in the Harrington case waslinked to an unknown offender in a September 2005 sexual assault in FairfaxCity. A 26-year-old woman was attacked at night while walking home from agrocery store. The offender was scared away by a passerby—but the victim got agood look at him, enabling a Fairfax City Police artist to produce a sketch ofthe attacker.
“It was a remarkable break to get theDNA match,” said FBI Special Agent Jane Collins. The forensic evidence linkedthe two cases, so now we have a face to put with the suspect in the Harringtoncase. The suspect is described as an African-American male with black hair andfacial hair (at the time of the 2005 attack). He is approximately 6 feet tall andwas believed to be between the ages of 25 and 35 years old at the time of theFairfax City assault.
Help us catch Morgan Harrington’skiller. If you have any information about the Harrington case or the FairfaxCity assault, contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Virginia State PoliceTip line at 434-352-3467, or submit a tip online.
AFamiliar Face?We are asking the public to review thesketches and other information in the Morgan Harrington and Fairfax City casesand consider whether they know someone who fits this description or who livedor had ties to the areas around the times of the assaults.
People who know the suspect may notbelieve he is capable of committing such crimes. He may not have a violentcriminal history. Because investigators have DNA evidence that can positivelylink the suspect to his crimes—or exclude innocent parties—the public shouldnot hesitate to provide information.
The Jefferson Area Crime Stoppers isoffering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and convictionof the person responsible for Morgan’s murder. The band Metallica has added anadditional $50,000 to that amount.
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